Monday, February 23, 2009

Results, February 19-22

A big story this week is former Sendai Girl Shuri "Tyrannosaurus" Okuda being introduced as the newest member of Team MAKEHEN. She's back in the gym training after her shoulder surgery from her injury last summer and is supposed to return in March or April. I'm not crazy about this move, but maybe it will work out for her.

The "Itabashi Green Hall Joshi Puroresu Festival" will take place during Golden Week in early May, with several promotions running shows at this small venue. This is in conjunction with the already announced Revolucion Amandola show at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring (featuring Kyoko Kimura in a deathmatch) and NEO's "May History" show at Korakuen Hall on May 5th. We have JWP (1PM) and Passion Red (5PM) on 5/3, Ibuki (1PM) and Ice Ribbon (5PM) on 5/4, a Cherry produced show (her home is DDT offshoot Union, so expect something silly) on 5/5 at 5PM, and Queen Bee (1PM) and NEO (5PM) on 5/6.

JWP is starting to set up their "MANIA-X" event in April with a show at Lazona Kawasaki Plaza Sol (I think it's a small arena in a shopping mall). Azumi Hyuga teamed with Toshie Uematsu & Ran Yu-Yu and scored a pinfall over JWP champ Kayoko Haruyama (with Command Bolshoi & Megumi Yabushita). All signs point to the rematch for the belt, which will be almost one year since Kayoko won it from Azumi and Hyuga's subsequent knee surgery. Also at that show, Yumiko Hotta & Keito racked up their first tag title defense, beating Tojuki Leon and Arisa Nakajima, with Keito using her modified Shubain on Nakajima. I guess Arisa has to chase Hotta & Friends for a while longer before scoring that big win over one of her elders.

NEO also ran a show at Lazona Kawasaki Plaza Sol. The notable results here was Kyoko Kimura & Atsuko Emoto defending the NEO tag titles against Natsuki*Taiyo & Kana. Kana had pinned Kimura in a show a few weeks back with the Flying Ass Attack (or Billiken), but Kimura used the Big Boot to keep the titles in Revolucion Amandola's hands. NEO has a Korakuen Hall show coming up in a few weeks; so far we have Nanae Takahashi vs Yuki Miyazaki for the NEO/NWA Pacific championships.

Sendai Girls ran the first round of this year's "Jaja Uma" tournament for young wrestlers in Sendai. The format has 12 wrestlers in a single elimination tournament. The four girls with first round byes met each other in a tag match. Sendai's sister duo DASH Chisako & Sendai Sachiko had a draw with fellow Sendai native Misaki Ohata (of Ibuki) and BattlARTS' Chihiro Oikawa, who grew up near Sendai herself. DASH hit Oikawa with a frogsplash just as time ran out. In the tournament, former arm-wrestling champ Yoko Yamada used a sleeper hold on Sendai's rookie Yukari Ishino, Mongolian wrestler Esui beat Ice Ribbon's Minori Makiba, Ito Dojo's Hanako Kobayashi beat Hiren, and Ryo Mizunami defeated the mysterious masked wrestler "Raika" (I may not have the name right). Oh, and Meiko didn't work this show. I don't think she's injured or anything. She did announce that the main event for Sendai Girls' show in Niigata this May will be the eternal Meiko vs Aja match-up. The 2nd round of the Jaja Uma tournament will have DASH vs Esui (runt vs tall awkward girl), Mizunami vs Oikawa, Kobayashi vs Ohata, & Sachiko vs Yamada.

OZ Academy was in Korakuen Hall, with both OZ "belts" (they are actually attached to chains) on the line. It ended up being a huge day for the Amano/Kansai/Nagashima/Kato "I Heart Oz" faction, as they won all of their matches and swept up the titles. On the undercard, Super Heel Toshie Uematsu debuted and beat KAORU. I wonder if Toshie can no-sell and not move as well as Devil Masami could. Ran Yu-Yu & Hikaru beat Takako Inoue & Hiren, Manami Toyota beat Arisa Nakajima, and Amano/Tomoka Nakagawa beat AKINO/Ayumi Kurihara. Then Chikayo & Sonoko beat Aja & Hiroyo Matsumoto for the tag belts that Jungle Jack 21 had only won barely more than 2 weeks ago, with AJA taking the fall to Chikayo. In the main event, Dynamite Kansai (with Cutie Suzuki in her corner!) broke out the "Green Fall" (I think it's a variation on a Michinoku Driver II that she rarely uses) to beat Ozaki for the title and a bunch of yen.

Fuuka had her 5th anniversary with a pair of shows at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. She said last year that she'd retire if she couldn't sell out Korakuen Hall for her anniversary, but she was obviously kidding. Mostly the usual Fuuka fare; singing and dancing and little kids pinning cows and the Fuuka Kid and the Shirai sisters. Sarah "Dark Angel" Stock was flown in and won both matches, beating Ray in the matinee and teaming with Azumi Hyuga to beat Tojuki Leon & Fuuka Kid (Kaori Yoneyama) later. Fuuka & Nanae beat Yoshiko Tamura & Haruka Matsuo in the first main, then Fuuka met Kyoko Kimura in a 2 round match in the finale. The first round was pinfalls only and Kimura won after the Big Boot. The second round was B-Rules (submission/KO only), which went to a time limit draw.HUSTLE "HUSTLE TOUR 2009" February 19, 2009Tokyo Korakuen Hall1910 Fans